digiholic, I typed out a long explanation of the company's 3D lens venture but apparently it wasn't allowed on this discussion board. Here is the short version:
"Hand held" 3D camera (meaning small) to capture action shots (such as in-the-wave surf shots) and specially treat screens at theatres to avoid having to use the 3D glasses from years ago. This is when Bruce Brown and later, Step Into Liquid were part of the company.
As Ray realized the need to broadcast the 3D and other high def movies over the Internet, Bevins and his associate came along with a high-speed solution that eventually didn't pan out but the collection of brains (the perfect storm of intelligence) lead to Brad, Tom Cooper, Cambridge University smarties, and several others developing Embarq.